


kaleidoscope heart

by seventhstar



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Girls, Alternate Universe - Sailor Moon, Enthusiastic Consent, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Gender or Sex Swap, Lesbian Character, always a girl!everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-09 14:16:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4352096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seventhstar/pseuds/seventhstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sailor Benetnasch and Sailor Hope are on different sides of the fight for the Numeron Code, but they're not very good at being enemies. Based loosely (very loosely) off of the Princess D episode of Sailor Moon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. i'm sorry, i'm not honest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rangerhitomi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/gifts).



“Your girlfriend is here.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Nasch murmured, but she turned away to look anyway. She could practically hear Merag smirking behind her as she scanned the crowd — there was Kaito, dancing with Chris Arclight and probably doing that thing they did where they tried to fuck each other with their eyes, and there was Astral, floating over the crowd towards the back room, and there was Orbital 7, painted black and serving drinks — and then Nasch saw her.

She almost hadn’t recognized her; she’d never seen Yuuma in a dress before.

The dress was pale gold, and most of it was sheer lace, so that it lay in stark contrast against Yuuma’s tanned shoulders, against her back, against her thighs and knees and calves. She stepped on the edge of her skirt and stumbled.

Nasch’s hands twitched as if to catch her, even though she was thirty feet away and on a balcony. Maybe it was just muscle memory at this point; they were on opposing sides, but Nasch spent a lot of time rescuing Yuuma from danger.

Yuuma was always complaining about the heels she had when transformed. She favored her right side when she attacked, and her left ankle was perpetually twisted. Sometimes Nasch walked with her after the battles were over, until they were far out enough that Yuuma could drop her transformation and go home.

Something in Nasch’s stomach twisted. Even though Yuuma had to be uncomfortable, she was beautiful, and the mix of pity and desire in Nasch blocked out everything else. For a moment, she forgot her mission entirely.

Then Yuuma glanced up, towards Astral, and nodded.

Right. They were all supposed to be working.

Nasch went over the plan. Alit, in a waiter’s uniform, was waiting for her signal; he’d slip into the back and check the card before it was brought out for display. If it was the Code, he’d call the others for back up and take it. If it wasn’t…

Well, Merag had arranged to rent the mansion out for the party until morning. They’d set up barriers to keep the Astral Sailors out. There would be plenty of time to get distracted.

Yuuma was leaning against a wall now, looking around wildly. It occurred to Nasch that she probably didn’t know how to waltz. What she was doing here, Nasch didn’t even know; Kaito could have handled this by herself, couldn’t she?

Oh. She was still eyefucking Chris Arclight. Maybe not. Why was Kaito in charge again?

“You’re too hard on them.”

Durbe had come up behind her.

She was wearing a gown, and Nasch thought, wistfully, of all the boring court parties they’d sat through together, talking tactics and complaining about men.

It was strange, the things she missed.

“They’re not focused enough. Look at her.” Nasch pointed at Kaito.

“We’ve been doing this for so much longer than they have.” Durbe shrugged. “Even if they’d been doing it their whole lives, we would have been doing it longer than they had.”

She held up her glass of champagne; Nasch could just see her own reflection in it.

Eighteen. She could have been maybe as young as sixteen, maybe as old as twenty. No one could look at her, or any of the Barians she led, and think they were millennia old soldiers from another world.

Nasch had only had these memories for a year and half, but she already felt like the war had dragged on much longer.

She could tell Durbe all that, but Durbe already knew.

So instead, Nasch leaned over the railing and waited for Alit to look up. He was handing out champagne flutes to a gaggle of old ladies, and they were all giggling; when they let him go, he glanced up at the balcony.

Nasch gave him the signal. He deposited the tray on the nearest table and headed for the doors, loosening his bowtie as he went. Nasch watched until he was out of sight.

“It’s probably a fake.”

“Yeah.” Nasch stole Durbe’s champagne and downed it in one long gulp. “Watch for him over here. I’ll wait in the back in case he needs backup.”

Durbe raised an eyebrow, but she nodded and took Nasch’s place at the railing without comment.

Nasch ducked out of the ballroom and into the dark hallways of the mansion.

It was dusty. Abandoned. She and Rio had never spent much time in the ballroom as children, but here in the hallways she began to see things that were familiar. They’d played here, run down these halls, broken vases, come running when their parents called…

Somewhere, their old rooms were sitting locked and mostly untouched. Ryoga had a sudden, violent urge to find Yuuma and show her. _I was a human girl just like you, she would say. See, I wasn’t always ancient and terrible._

Nasch shook her head. That was the past, and it was worthless. She wasn’t alone anyone; the Barians were her family. And Yuuma was…

_“You know she’s the enemy, right? She’s the Astral Emissary’s human.”_

_“She’s just some kid.”_

_“She’s not just anything. Don’t —” Rio had hesitated. “Don’t lose your head.”_

Bad advice. Nasch was good at keeping her head. It was her heart that kept causing her problems.

The rare card was being stored in the parlor just off the ballroom. There was only one door, and one window, but from the room above sound filtered up through one of the vents well enough. She had vivid memories of spying on her parents’ guests with Rio, long into the night, until they both fell asleep on the sofa.

Alit would signal yes or no by knocking on the wall. Nasch made her way to the parlor without looking at anything, and when she reached it, she sank down to the floor by the vent.

All the furniture was covered with white sheets. She could smell the dust, and the mothballs, and the faint scent of perfume that she knew was in her imagination.

Nasch leaned against the wall and waited.

There was muffled thumping. A cry that was sharply cut off. A click of metal on metal, a scraping noise, the screech of claws against glass.

Alit must have encountered security.

And then there was a knock from below. One. Two. Three.

That was the signal for no. Nasch scrambled to her feet. Now that she didn’t have to be in the mansion, she was leaving. The grounds had been redone since she moved out; she’d hide out in the gardens until the party was over. Let the Astrals waste their night trying to break in for a card that was of no value, she thought. Served Kaito right for spending so much time with her ex-girlfriend. She was the leader, she ought to look after Yuuma more —

 _That is not my damn problem,_ Nasch thought, and she stomped down the last few steps.

Somehow she’d ended up in the ballroom again. Yuuma was still against the wall, alone. Kaito and Orbital 7 were conferring elsewhere. Astral was still surveying the party from above.

The smart thing to do would be to turn around and go back outside, but Yuuma looked sad.

Nasch could not resist that look, anymore than she could have resisted catching Yuuma when she jumped off a building last week, or throwing her out of the way of a monster’s poisonous spit the week before.

“Shut up,” Nasch said aloud. “I’m doing this for Barian World.”

Up close, she realized Yuuma had shaved her legs. There was an ESPer Robin bandaid on her knee, maybe where she’d cut herself. She had kept her usual pigtails, but there was a bow made of gold ribbon tied around each of them.

She’d seen Sailor Hope’s legs on the battlefield — impossible not to, in a skirt that short — but seeing Yuuma’s legs was something different. She was tan all over; Nasch had a sudden vision of her sunbathing, and how little she would have to wear to avoid any tanlines, and almost bit through her lip.

“Nasch!”

“Hey.” Nasch leaned against the wall beside Yuuma.

Yuuma glanced up nervously at Astral, who was glaring. Nasch ignored him; Astral couldn’t do anything unless Yuuma decided to lend him her body for Zexal.

“Hi.” She shifted so that her back was to Astral, who was floating towards Kaito. “Are you here to fight?”

“For what?”

“Uh…” Yuuma was clearly trying to decide whether to tell her about the card.

Nasch leaned in to whisper into her ear. She could see Kaito approaching out of the corner of her eye.

Yuuma smelled good.

“Do you trust me?”

The first time they’d met, they’d fought. Yuuma had been faster and stronger and more focused than she looked. She had been golden and terrible and dangerous.

And then she’d had an opening, a killing blow, and she hadn’t taken it.

And then a monster had ambushed them, and Nasch had jerked Yuuma behind her, because she couldn’t bear to owe an Astral a debt.

But Yuuma had thanked her afterwards, and meant it.

“Yeah,” Yuuma said. She put a hand on Nasch’s shoulder, not pushing her away, just resting there. “Of course.”

“The card is a fake.” Nasch sucked in a deep breath. “You wanna go for a walk?”

“Eh?” Yuuma blinked at her. She glanced to the side, at Kaito. “Er…I don’t think I’m allowed to do that…”

“You always do what she tells you to?”

Yuuma’s eyes flashed.

 _Too easy,_ Nasch thought with a pang of regret.

“Okay,” she said. She let Nasch take her hand and guide her out of the ballroom; Kaito stared at them as they went, but she didn’t follow. 


	2. i can say it in my dreams

Yuuma liked Nasch’s dress.

It was black, and soft — velvet, maybe — and it clung to her like a tattoo, against her stomach and hips and thighs. The neckline plunged down between her breasts; when Nasch turned to lead her away, Yuuma saw that there wasn’t a back, either.

Nasch had pale, pale skin, and faint scars.

Looking at Nasch’s dress made Yuuma think about Nasch’s body, which was distracting, so Yuuma tried and failed not to do it. It was different when they were in battle, when there were duels to duel and monsters to slay and Numbers to collect. Yuuma knew what to do there.

But now Nasch wanted to go for a walk, and this was probably one of those girl things Kotori understood and always had to explain, like the weird bra alphabet or eyeliner. There were definitely things girls did to attract their crushes, right?

_Astral and Kaito told you to stay away._

_Astral and Kaito are both wrong,_ Yuuma reminded herself. _Nasch is a good person. She protects me._

“Where are we going?”

“Gardens.” Nasch pointed to a cast iron gate.

The path gave way to grass, and Yuuma’s heels kept getting stuck in the soft dirt. She clung to Nasch’s arm, and Nasch pulled her along without saying anything. She was wearing high heels, too, but she wasn’t having any problems.

The gate opened onto a round garden, ringed in by tall hedges. There were a lot of flowers — Yuuma wrinkled her nose and sneezed — with a few small trees and grass and a big white stone bench.

It was quiet; there was no road noise, no laughter. The summer air was pleasantly warm against Yuuma’s skin. She remembered then that she was still wearing the dress, the one that didn’t actually cover anything, and shuddered.

She hoped Nasch couldn’t see how ridiculous she looked. Maybe it was good they were outside; it was darker, at least.

Nasch knelt down to get something out from underneath the bench. It was a blanket; she unfolded it and laid it out on the grass. It was large, blue, soft-looking.

“You can sit down.” Nasch nudged her. “You’re limping.”

Yuuma glanced down. Her left ankle did hurt; it always did, these days. She sat down and began trying to take off her shoes. They had tiny, tiny buckles.

“Do you have scissors?”

“Why do you — Yuuma.”

“What?”

Yuuma flushed as Nasch pulled her ankle into her lap and deftly undid the buckle. She tugged the shoe off, and then reached for the other ankle.

“I could —”

Nasch was already taking off her other shoe. Yuuma wiggled her toes happily; those pointy toed heels were exactly as uncomfortable as they looked.

Nasch’s fingers were warm.

“Thanks,” Yuuma said. “Geez, Kaito’s taste is really annoying.”

She folded her legs so that she could rub her sore ankle.

Nasch smiled. It was very slight, but it was a real smile, not the fierce, toothy expression she used when she and Kaito were fighting. Not that Yuuma had ever been so distracted by Yuuma’s face that she totally missed the entire conversation.

“Your dress is…” Nasch looked down. “It’s cute.”

Yuuma beamed.

“What happened to your knee?”

“I was shaving.” She pointed at her knee, where the bandaid was. “Knees are weird, I don’t know why --”

She stopped. Would Nasch think it was weird that she didn’t shave her legs often? Didn’t most girls do that?

“Before what?”

“Ah…there were some pictures of Sailor Hope with hairy legs on the internet. I mean. On people’s blogs and stuff.”

Yuuma had clear, vivid memories of being called a hairy freak in the comments, and of begging Kotori to teach her how to shave her legs because she was too intimidated to ask Kaito or Akari.

Nasch looked at her. Yuuma didn’t say anything else. She’d seen Sailor Benetnasch’s legs when she wasn’t in her mouthless Barian form, and they were nice and smooth.

“Anyways!” Yuuma rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “What did you want to talk about?”

Nasch fiddled with the halter strap of her dress in silence. It took Yuuma a moment to realize that she was nervous, too.

“…Nasch?”

“Do you think I’m a monster?”

“No!”

Whatever she’d expected Nasch to say, it wasn’t that.

Nasch sighed. She leaned back on her arms. “Even though I — I’m not a human being anymore?”

“Just because you’re not human doesn’t mean you’re a monster, you know.” Yuuma shrugged. “I mean, Astral’s not a human. He’s blue.”

“You would say that,” Nasch said darkly.

She was hunched, shoulders drawn in. Waiting, Yuuma thought, for a blow.

What Nasch was thinking, what she wanted, Yuuma couldn’t imagine. She tried anyway.

“I think you’re a good person.” Yuuma put her hand on Nasch’s knee. “I know we’re supposed to fight, but —”

She stopped herself.

She had promised Astral she would help him. And Kaito’s brother was in danger, and needed Astral’s help, too. Even if Nasch wasn’t a bad person, if they were competing for the same prize, didn’t Yuuma owe it to her comrades to keep some secrets?

It was always this way. There had been the mission, and Kaito and Astral, her team, and the monsters they fought. It had been easy, and then the Barians had appeared. They wanted the Numbers and the Code. They called themselves enemies.

And yet…Nasch’s eyes…

She thought, suddenly, about that time before. She’d skipped school because what was one more detention, when the demands of being Sailor Hope had already ruined her grades and her attendance. She’d been walking, and suddenly Nasch was just there, across the street, staring at her.

They’d walked together, then, too, and Yuuma had poured out her frustration because she was going to fail out of high school and then Akari would kill her, and somewhere along the way Nasch had put her arm around her to pull her away from traffic and just left it there. Nasch had listened to her.

“Hey, Nasch,” Yuuma had said. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Tch,” Nasch had said. “You shouldn’t get involved with me.”

“But…”

Nasch’s arm around her had tightened, briefly. Her mouth had brushed over Yuuma’s forehead, and Yuuma had held her breath, conjured a thousand fantasies of what might happen next. Nothing had. Nasch walked her back to school, her thumb absently tracing circles against Yuuma’s shoulder. Yuuma had regretted her decision to wear the boy’s uniform, because it had sleeves.

They’d parted ways. Maybe it had meant nothing to Nasch at all. The next time they met, she acted as if nothing had changed.

 _But she asked me to come here,_ Yuuma thought, _so she must know I’m her friend._

“Did something happen?”

Nasch said nothing. Her mouth was a tight thin line.

“It’ll be our secret,” Yuuma said, and she meant it.

Nasch looked at her directly. “Will it?”

Yuuma nodded. Nasch relaxed then, her shoulders dropping.

“I used to live here.” She pointed at the mansion. “With my family. Before I became a Barian.”

Became. Yuuma swallowed, trying to understand. Astral had told her the Barians came from another world, that they were old and dangerous because of it.

Nasch wouldn’t lie to her. She had no reason to believe that, but Yuuma did.

And then — _oh. Used to. Meaning her family is…_

“I’m sorry.” Yuuma hated the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. “My parents are gone, too. They….they went missing when I was a kid.”

“Expedition for Faker, right?” Nasch shrugged. She must have caught Yuuma’s expression of surprise, because she went on, “I looked it up.”

She put her hand over Yuuma’s on her knee.

Yuuma knew where she used to live. She could find out Nasch’s real name, where she came from. She wouldn’t, but she could. (Okay, she couldn’t, she would probably need Akari’s or Kaito’s help, but anyway.)

“So,” Yuuma said seriously. “Do you like rice balls?”

“What?”

Yuuma flopped down on the blanket and slapped the ground beside her. “Rice balls are my favorite.”

Nasch stared at her. Her brow furrowed, and then smoothed again.

“Yeah,” she said. “I like rice balls.”


	3. my thoughts are about to short circuit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> stargazing and dark houses, new love and old love.

“And that one’s yours, right?”

They were stargazing. Yuuma was lying on the blanket beside her, their fingers loosely intertwined between their bodies. She pointed at the Little Dipper.

“Yeah,” Nasch said. She swallowed; she couldn’t hear the stars in this form, but she could still feel the prickle of awareness on the back of her neck. The asterism of the seven Barian Lords (six, now) was bright against the night sky.

“My dad taught how to use it find North,” Yuuma said.

“The constellations are different, in Barian World,” Nasch replied. “But that one’s the same everywhere.”

“My dad used to teach me a new constellation every time we went on an adventure.”

“Yeah?”

“That’s what he said.” Yuuma huffed. “He was really bad at it, though, so he used to just make ones up…”

There were crickets chirping somewhere. The far off noise of the party was beginning to die down. It was still warm, though. They were still alone.

“We did that, too.” Nasch remembered the beginning. There had been no one to teach them when they arrived in Barian World, in new bodies and with blank minds. The deserts were vast and blurred together after too long; they’d started studying the stars just to keep from getting lost.

The Gladiator, chosen by Alit because he thought it looked like a fist. The Blizzard, a cluster of five bright stars Merag had marked as her own. And in the center of the sky, above the throne, there were the seven stars, pointing north, guiding them home.

She had never bothered to look at the stars much, before she died.

“Hey,” Yuuma said. “Which star’s me?”

“Hmph.” Nasch turned so that she was looking at Yuuma, not the sky. “You’d be the sun.”

Close, and warm, and important, and when it was visible, it blocked out all the other stars.

Yuuma pouted. “The sun doesn’t have a cool name.”

“Neither do you.”

“Hey!”

Yuuma rolled and swatted at her, and Nasch caught her wrist with her free hand without thinking. Yuuma froze.

Nasch winced, inwardly; she had reflexes like a cat’s, fast enough to be inhuman. There was no need to remind Yuuma of that.

She waited. Yuuma didn’t pull away, even though Nasch had both of her hands now. She was staring at Nasch, eye wide, bottom lip between her teeth.

“What?”

“N-nothing.” Yuuma blinked, and the moment passed. Nasch reluctantly let go of her hands. “Nasch, I —”

A twig snapped.

One white high heel appeared on the garden path.

Nasch grabbed Yuuma around the waist and vaulted the hedge just in time.

“Chris, you —”

“Shhh —”

There was an awful wet sucking noise.

Yuuma squeaked. She tugged on Nasch’s arm, and Nasch realized she was still holding her. She lowered her to the ground.

The hedge was shaking. Yuuma was blushing, her face and neck and chest all turning red, and she clamped a hand over her mouth. Had Kaito ever mentioned to her that Chris was her ex-girlfriend? Probably not.

Tch. Nasch was going to have to pay the landscapers extra. Merag would be pissed.

She put a finger to her lips. Yuuma nodded.

“Come on,” Nasch whispered, and she took Yuuma by the hand and led her back towards the house.

She didn’t use the ballroom exit this time. Instead, she found herself walking around, into the parts of the garden that weren’t as well maintained, past the crest on the wall…

The front doors weren’t locked, and they were rusty.

Nasch reached for the handle, and paused; behind her, Yuuma looked nervous. Maybe she didn’t want to see this, this haunted house where Ryoga’s ghosts lived. Nasch could barely stand to see it. There were other gardens they could go lie in.

_“Just because you’re not human doesn’t mean you’re a monster, you know.”_

_But I was a human,_ Nasch thought. _No matter the Astral emissary tells you, all of us were once…_

“We moved out after my parents died,” she said. “But…”

Yuuma squeezed her hand.

Nasch opened the door, and stepped into the dark.


	4. i want to be with you right now

It didn’t feel like a home.

It was dusty, and old, but that wasn’t it, Yuuma thought. Her attic was kind of dusty and old (chores were boring), but it was still comfortable. This just felt sad.

All of the doors they passed were closed; Yuuma glanced into rooms when she could, but everything was covered in sheets and none of the lights were on. Nasch had grabbed a flashlight from a table in the foyer, and the harsh blue light lit their way.

She could understand why Nasch and her family didn’t live here anymore. She and Akari still avoided their parents’ bedroom. Haru went in to change the sheets once a month, and that was all.

Yuuma wondered what it was Nasch remembered when she came here.

The carpet was so soft it muffled all sound. Yuuma hoped she wasn’t leaving dirt on the floor. Her shoes were still somewhere in Nasch’s garden. Kaito might see them.

Nasch was hanging onto her wrist so hard it hurt.

“Nasch?”

“What?”

“Where are we going?”

Nasch stopped in her tracks. She looked back over her shoulder; the shadows on her face were harsh and distorted her expression.

“I don’t know,” she said. The half of her mouth that Yuuma could see was pinched.

“Okay,” Yuuma said. She tried to smile.

They kept walking. They came to a set of stairs, which creaked alarmingly as they climbed. The second floor looked just like the first, but with fewer tables in the hallways, and even darker. And it was cold.

Nasch stopped outside one of the identical doors and opened it. She gestured grandly with the flashlight at the doorway.

It looked like a bedroom. Nothing to be afraid of — and whatever she was scared of, Nasch had to be ten times as frightened, Yuuma told herself — she stepped inside.

There was a bed, a dresser, two nightstands visible through the faint light coming through the closed blinds. Behind her, Nasch flicked a switch, and Yuuma had to close her eyes as a light came on overhead. After a few seconds, she opened them.

The bedding was dark blue, and the furniture was reddish-brown. There was nothing personal about it; no photographs, no stuff lying around. Even Yuuma’s bedroom, which went mostly unused, slowly accumulated piles of clothes and trading cards. This room looked like a hotel room.

Nasch was staring at her. Yuuma felt stupid; she didn’t know what she was supposed to say.

“Is this your room?”

“It’s a guest room.” Nasch shrugged. “Mine is a floor up. Same size.”

“Oh.”

“It’s locked. I don’t know where the keys are.”

Yuuma nodded, grateful to have an opening to say something. “I don’t use my bedroom at home, either.”

“Yeah?”

“I sleep in a hammock in the attic.” Yuuma shrugged, too. “My dad’s stuff is all up there.”

“His stuff?”

“All his treasures from adventuring! Masks, idols, old maps, his journals — everything.”

Nasch walked over to the dresser. Her back to Yuuma, she spoke to her own reflection instead.

“You have a sister, right?”

“Her name’s Akari.”

Nasch nodded.

“Merag and I are twins.”

Yuuma bit her tongue in surprise. She’d seen Sailor Megrez, but had she ever seen her untransformed? They did look alike.

“After our parents died, we didn’t —” Nasch sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Until we became Barians, we didn’t have a family.”

“Nasch…”

“Did Astral ever tell you why they sent him here?”

“To collect the Numbers…”

Nasch snorted. “If he ever tells you the truth…”

“Astral wouldn’t lie to me!”

She spun around and grabbed her, and suddenly Nasch was very close. Their noses were almost touched, Nasch’s fingers digging into her arms as she held her, her eyes blazing. Yuuma froze.

“…Nasch?”

“Did Astral tell you how humans become Barians?”

Yuuma swallowed. “No.”

Nasch’s left eye had taken on an alien red glow. “You should ask.”

“But I…”

Nasch wasn’t wrong, Yuuma thought, and she felt a little sick thinking about it. She wanted to trust Astral. They were supposed to be partners…friends…

Then again, Yuuma realized then that she had no idea where Astral was. Kaito had spent so much time telling Yuuma to stay away from Nasch, and then tonight she’d just let Yuuma go off with her while she…well.

“I think I should go.”

Nasch jerked back. Her hands dropped to her side; she snatched up the flashlight she’d tossed onto the bed.

“Right. Come on, I’ll show you the way out.”

The house was much less frightening now. Yuuma couldn’t help but think, between the swirl of questions about Astral in her mind, about a tiny Nasch and her sister, running around in these hallways. She remembered, suddenly, coming home from school to find her parents home early — they’d brought pizza and cake, for Yuuma’s birthday — and flinging herself into their arms.

It was different for her. Akari was older, and there was Haru…Yuuma couldn’t say she was alone, even without her parents.

Nasch didn’t hold her hand on the way out. Yuuma tried not to feel bereft.

The front door was still open.

“Do you need a ride?”

“No,” Yuuma lied. She’d come with Kaito, but she’d…figure something out.

“I can go get Kaito.”

Yuuma flushed. “We shouldn’t disturb them!”

“They’re fucking on my lawn.”

She couldn’t help but imagine it, and feel embarrassed and annoyed all at once. Kaito had lectured her everyday about responsibility, and not being seduced by the enemy, and doing her job as an Astral Sailor, and tonight, instead of actually doing anything, she’d gone off with Chris to have sex while Yuuma wandered off with Nasch.

 _If I really was in danger with her,_ Yuuma thought, _how come Kaito didn’t care?_

And then, traitorously, Yuuma thought that Kaito didn’t have any right to talk about being seduced by the enemy, either. Chris Arclight and her sisters had worked for the Barians, once.

She liked Nasch.

Nasch was still standing there, waiting for a response. Yuuma stared out across the empty lawn.

“Maybe I’ll just wait for her.”

“You can wait inside,” Nasch said. “We have chairs.”


	5. but i'm so innocent, what should i do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nsfw warning.

Nasch took her into a guest bedroom and gave her a pitcher of ice water before vanishing, and Yuuma sprawled across the bed unhappily.

The bed was nice and soft, and her mood immediately improved.

Maybe she’d drink the water and take a nap. Kaito wouldn’t leave without her, right? Yuuma eyed the pitcher on the dresser; there was no glass, and it looked heavy. She sighed. She hadn’t had anything to drink in hours.

She picked up the pitcher. It was only halfway filled, so she had to heft it up just to get the water down to her mouth, and the glass was slick with condensation. Maybe, she thought, this was a bad idea —

— the pitcher slipped and hit the floor with a dull thump, and Yuuma squeaked as the entire front of her dress from the neck down was soaked in ice water. It was freezing cold, and her dress adhered to the curve of her breasts like a second skin, and there was an ice cube stuck in her cleavage, underneath all of the lace.

Yuuma was in the process of trying to fish it out when Nasch came back in.

“Um,” Nasch stopped in the doorway, a glass in her hand. “What are you doing?”

“There’s ice in there,” Yuuma said, and she folded her arms over her chest.

“I was bringing you a glass!”

“I was thirsty!”

Nasch rolled her eyes and set the glass on the dresser. “I’ll get a towel.”

“Wait! Can you help take off my dress?”

“What?”

Yuuma’s face turned the color of a tomato. “I can’t reach the ice cube,” she mumbled.

“Turn around.”

The catches down Yuuma’s back were well hidden, and Nasch had to feel for them, her hands warm against Yuuma’s skin as she undid them one by one.

Every time she touched bare skin, Yuuma found herself leaning back into the touch.

“There,” Nasch said, when she’d unhooked the last catch and Yuuma was holding her dress up awkwardly with an arm over her chest. “Can you reach it?”

Yuuma fumbled around in her cleavage and knocked the ice cube to the floor. “Yeah.”

Nasch laid the open back of Yuuma’s dress flat against her back, to do it up again.

“Wait. Nasch —”

“Yeah?”

“When you said you became a Barian — do you mean — did you not have a choice?”

Behind her, Yuuma could hear Nasch holding her breath.

“I did,” Nasch said, “But Merag didn’t. Does it matter?”

Yuuma shook her head.

She stared down at the floor while Nasch fastened each catch. She could hear the faint click of each one closing, the lace rough against her skin. She could hear Nasch breathing.

She kept thinking, _this is a bad idea,_ but she still wanted to do it.

“Is your plan really to seduce me for information?”

“I would,” Nasch said, “but you don’t know anything.”

She leaned back against Nasch, her head tilted back. Nasch’s arms slid around her waist, folding over her stomach. Yuuma closed her eyes.

“You should do it anyway,” she said softly. “Just in case.”

She liked Nasch’s dress, and Nasch’s body, and the way Nasch’s arms curled around her when she was dragging Yuuma out of danger, and the way her fingers dug into Yuuma’s wrists when she was frightened.

Nasch tugged lightly on her skirt. “Can I take this off you?”

Yuuma blushed. “You first.”

Nasch swallowed audibly. She pushed Yuuma forward, until she turned and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Yuuma couldn’t read her expression at all.

Then she reached behind her head and tugged, and the front of her dress dropped down so that she was naked to the waist; she pulled down a hidden zipper, her skirt fell to the floor and she stepped out of it — and her shoes — towards Yuuma.

She was pale, and there was a triangle of long thin scars on her stomach, under her right breast; Yuuma stared, dazed, at the flat lines of muscle over her body and the taut skin and the purple bruise over her left hip. She didn’t have curves, just sharp angles that made Yuuma think of her Barian form, studded with crystals.

She wasn’t wearing any underwear.

Nasch stalked over to Yuuma. She bent over her; her palm cradled Yuuma’s cheek.

“Yuuma,” she said, and it was a kind of promise.

“Nasch…”

“Shh,” she said, and she covered Yuuma’s mouth with her own.

Her hands slid down Yuuma’s body. Yuuma closed her eyes tightly. She thought about her fat stomach and her thick thighs and the way her breasts looked too large on her body. With her dress off, Nasch would see all that. She would see that there was no comparison between them.

Her nails scraped over her spine as she undid the catches on the back of Yuuma’s dress frantically. Yuuma arched into the touch, and let her tongue drag over the roof of Nasch’s mouth.

She was pressed back onto the bed, Nasch on top of her. She could feel Nasch’s hand on her bare breast. Yuuma kept her eyes closed.

“Okay?” Nasch asked, her breath hot against Yuuma’s neck.

“Yeah.”

And so Nasch’s mouth dragged down her throat, licked wetly across one collarbone. Yuuma gasped as she trailed between her breasts and down her stomach until her tongue was tracing the edge of Yuuma’s underwear.

Yuuma had never been so aware of her own skin before. Everywhere Nasch had touched seemed to burn pleasantly, her heart pounding in her ears. She opened her eyes just as Nasch dug her teeth lightly into her inner thigh.

She couldn’t see Nasch’s expression, just the fall of her dark hair between her legs.

Nasch’s lips pushed between her legs, tongue licking her through the fabric, and Yuuma had a brief panic at the thought of her pubic hair.

“Ah,” Nasch said, and began sucking on her in earnest.

It was pleasurable at first. Nasch’s mouth was warm and she licked Yuuma’s clit and sucked at her labia and Yuuma was wet and squirming under her. She fisted the sheets and whimpered and resisted the urge to grab Nasch by the hair.

Then, abruptly, it didn’t feel good anymore.

But Nasch was still enjoying herself, wasn’t she? Yuuma shut her eyes again and lay back, still and silent.

And Nasch pulled back.

“Yuuma?”

Yuuma cringed. “Can we stop?”

She nodded and sat up between Yuuma’s thighs.

Yuuma’s face was hot; she wondered why she’d decided to do this in the first place. She looked like an idiot. And normally she tried not to care about things like that — it just got in the way of her kattobingu — but she wanted Nasch to think she was…

Nasch crawled over her and flopped down beside her on the bed. She grabbed one of Yuuma’s hands and wound their fingers together.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No, I just…haven’t done this before. Sorry.”

“For what?” Nasch yawned. “Come here.” She threw an arm over Yuuma’s waist, pressing up against her back. Her nose ended up buried in Yuuma’s hair.

She smelled good, and Yuuma yawned, too. She was suddenly…tired…


	6. my heart's a kaleidoscope

“Nnn.”

“Kaito is looking for you,” Nasch said, bored.

Yuuma yelped and sat up, realized she was still naked, and snatched at the sheet. Nasch was snickering as she looked pointedly away while she covered herself.

“Eh? Kaito is still here?”

“Nah, she came back. Merag had her thrown off the lawn for public indecency.”

“Oh my god,” Yuuma said. “I’m going to die.”

“Durbe is distracting her. You want a ride home?”

“Yeah.”

Yuuma laid back down. Now that the initial panic was over, she was sleepy again; she’d woken up twice last night with nighmares.

No, not nightmares. They were dreams, but weird dreams. Or dream, rather — the same dream she’d always had — the dream that she’d had ever since her father had given her the Key.

It was important, she knew it was, but she had never been able to tell anyone else about it. It was too personal.

Nasch was stroking the back of Yuuma’s hand with her thumb.

“Hey, Nasch?”

“What?”

“Do you…ever have dreams that are real?”

Nasch frowned. “Like…prophetic? Or dreams of things that really happened in the past?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why? Did you have a nightmare, or something?”

“I have this dream. There’s this huge gate, and it tells me I can make a deal. I can have power, but…I gotta give up my most important thing.”

Beside her, Nasch went completely still. She squeezed Yuuma’s fingers so hard they hurt.

“Nasch?”

“It’s nothing.” She dropped Yuuma’s hand. “You just reminded me of something.”

“But my dream —”

“It’s just a dream, Yuuma.” She picked up Yuuma’s hand again. “Go back to sleep. One of the others is going to bring us some clothes.”

She was lying, Yuuma thought, but she didn’t know about what. She nestled into the covers and held tight to Nasch’s hand in silent comfort.

Eventually she drifted off again.

Nasch leaned back against the headboard and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“So you’re the Numeron Code, Yuuma Tsukumo.” She closed her eyes. “Now what do I do…?”


End file.
